By GRANT HEIMAN
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) has requested roughly $2.1 million in administrative and investments costs for the next two fiscal years.

KPERS handles the retirement benefits of 312,000 members including public employees, police, firefighters and judges.

“Of course, serving all those members is what KPERS is all about,” Alan Conroy, executive director of KPERS, said Monday. “That’s the only reason we exist.”

The funding request breaks down as $224,699 requested for 2019 to cover maintenance costs for the KPERS Integrated Technology System and $1.9 million requested for 2020 to primarily cover consultation services, legal fees, computer programming, salary adjustments and fringe benefits, according to an agency budget summary.

As noted in the agency’s budget summary, Gov. Laura Kelly agrees with the revised estimate. Kelly also recommends the elimination of a payment of up to $56 million from the State General fund to the KPERS Trust Fund scheduled for the end of 2019 and instead the reamortization of the KPERS State/School employees’ group.

“The agency certainly supports the governor’s recommendation in both [fiscal years] 19 and 20,” Conroy said.

Conroy also spoke to the diversification of KPERS investment portfolio, noting that there was public equity, U.S. equity, stocks, international equity, bonds, real estate, alternative investments, timber and more all maintaining a balance. The investments retain an above average 25-year return of 8.1 percent.

“We take that fiduciary responsibility very seriously in trying to have that high level of service,” Conroy said.

As of 2018, KPERS received $1.3 billion in contributions from state employees and employers, and paid out $1.7 billion in annual benefit payments.

Also, up for consideration within the House Committees is House Bill 2119 which would “expand the delegated authority of the [KPERS] Board [of Trustees] to enter into contracts for additional services when it is in the best interests of the Trust Fund,” according to the budget summary.

HB 2119 is up for consideration in the House Financial Institutions and Pensions Committee.

Grant Heiman is a University of Kansas junior from Wichita majoring in journalism.

LONDON (AP) — Instagram has agreed to ban graphic images of self-harm after objections were raised in Britain following the suicide of a teen whose father said the photo-sharing platform had contributed to her decision to take her own life.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said Thursday evening the platform is making a series of changes to its content rules.

He said: “We are not where we need to be on self-harm and suicide, and we need to do more to protect the most vulnerable in our community.”

The company is also removing non-graphic images of self-harm from searches.

The call for changes was backed by the British government after the family of 14-year-old Molly Russell found material related to depression and suicide on her Instagram account after her death in 2017.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A conservation organization has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior over oil and gas leases offered in southeast Utah, claiming the parcels are packed with ancient cultural relics.

Advocates for the West filed the suit Wednesday in federal court in Utah on behalf of Friends of Cedar Mesa, the Deseret News reported.

The lawsuit targets the first of three oil and gas lease sales held in March 2018. The Bureau of Land Management has not yet issued the leases.

The parcels are between Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado and the former boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. The organization claims the area contains dozens of ancient community centers and Chacoan Great Houses.

The Cedar Mesa group has worked with federal land managers, but officials have refused to remove the sensitive parcels from potential leasing, said Josh Ewing, executive director of the organization.

“For an on-the-ground organization focused on stewardship and working constructively with government agencies, going to court is an absolute last resort for us,” Ewing said. “However, if we don’t stand up for these lands and cultural sites, no one will.”

The federal government has acknowledged the existence of 1,700 archaeological sites on the parcels, Ewing said. More than 900 sites in the area are eligible for listing on the national register, according to the lawsuit.

“In many of these lease parcels, less than 10 percent of the lands have been surveyed,” said Don Simonis, a former archaeologist for the Bureau of Land Management. “So the recorded sites the BLM knows about are just the tip of the iceberg.”

By JIM MCLEAN
Kansas News Service

Kansas Democratic Governor Laura Kelly named former Republican Rep. Melissa Rooker on Thursday to help lead one of her signature initiatives.

Kelly chose Rooker to head the Kansas Children’s Cabinet, a 15-member group created in the late 1990s to guide state investments in early childhood programs.

Rooker, a moderate Republican, represented a Johnson County district in the Kansas House for six years before narrowly losing last year to Democrat Rui Xu. While in the Legislature, Rooker played a leadership role on education issues.

“I worked closely with Rep. Rooker for many years and know her to be a steadfast advocate for Kansas children and families,” Kelly said in a statement.

Kelly has said that expanding and improving programs that help prepare children to succeed is one of her top priorities as governor.

As the paid executive director of the Children’s Cabinet, Rooker will play a key role in helping the governor implement her vision.

“I have always focused my policy work on children’s issues,” she said. “So, for me … this could not be a more perfect fit.”

The cabinet advises the governor and Legislature on how to spend approximately $50 million in annual dedicated funding for early childhood programs. It also works with researchers at the University of Kansas to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs it funds.

Kelly also appointed Kim Moore to chair the Cabinet and the Children’s Trust Fund. Moore retired last year after 30 years as president of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

“I’ve seen first-hand the positive impact that high-quality early intervention and support can have on children and families across the state of Kansas,” Moore said. “I look forward to (making) sure all children in Kansas are safe, healthy and have the opportunity to succeed.”

In a related development, Senate President Susan Wagle on Wednesday reinstated Sen. Dinah Sykes to the cabinet after removing her in December for switching parties.

Sykes, a former moderate Republican who became a Democrat just before the start of the 2019 legislative session, had challenged her removal from the cabinet. She argued that Wagle didn’t have the authority to replace her before the end of her term.

Research done by legislative staff proved her correct.

Skyes said she’s excited to again be working with Rooker.

“Her passion is Kansas kids and I think she’ll do an incredible job,” Sykes said.

Rooker succeeds Janice Suzanne Smith, who resigned in December.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Democrats are attacking a Republican tax relief bill approved Thursday by the state Senate as a give-away to large corporations and managed to peel away a couple of GOP votes Thursday by highlighting how it benefits big businesses.

The bill is designed to prevent Kansas residents and businesses from paying higher state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017. The Senate vote was 26-14 , leaving GOP leaders one vote short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto by new Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who has opposed the bill.

A key part of the bill would prevent thousands of individuals from losing itemized deductions on their state forms, but nearly three-quarters of the relief in the first year of the changes would go to businesses — and much of that to corporations with international operations.

“They’ve had tax breaks for years, and it’s time for them to start paying their fair share,” said Sen. John Skubal, a moderate Kansas City-area Republican who was one of two GOP senators to vote no.

Kelly and other Democrats want to boosting spending on public schools and expand state Medicaid health coverage for needy families. But Republicans — who have supermajorities in both chambers — are making tax relief a top priority, which would make Kelly’s spending goals more difficult.

The populist arguments from Democrats haven’t given GOP leaders pause because many Republicans argue that the state’s business climate and economy will suffer if it doesn’t provide corporate tax relief quickly.

“Our young people are going to have fewer job opportunities and have fewer companies looking at Kansas,” Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican and the bill’s architect, said during its debate. “We need to have an economic environment that encourages growth, encourages new jobs, encourages creativity.”

The Kansas Department of Revenue estimates that the bill would save taxpayers $187 million during the next budget year, which begins in July.

Corporations would save $137 million of that, or 73 percent of the total tax relief, and $81 million — or 43 percent of the total — comes from provisions designed to prevent the state from taxing foreign income that it hasn’t previously taxed.

“How many multi-national corporations are small?” House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, said Thursday. “You’re not talking mom-and-pops.”

The federal tax changes included provisions preventing corporations from sheltering income and assets outside the U.S. that could lead to Kansas and other states taxing foreign income.

The Kansas Department of Revenue said the state is among only a dozen taxing one part of companies’ foreign income. Other parts could be taxed by more than half with the federal changes, according to a report last month from the conservative Tax Foundation.

In Kansas, Kelly’s called on legislators to wait at least another year to consider tax changes. Her staff has called the tax bill irresponsible, and Kelly spokeswoman Ashley All said Thursday that the bill benefits “top income earners” and “does nothing for the people who need it the most.”

A conservative GOP senator predicted Wednesday that the bill is headed for “a big, fat veto.” Republicans have the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a veto, but the Senate vote Thursday showed how Kelly could prevail if just a few GOP moderates bolt.

All 11 Democrats and the Senate’s one independent member voted against the bill. Republicans hold 28 seats, but Skubal and Sen. Mary Jo Taylor, a moderate western Kansas Republican, voted no.

Taylor said lawmakers ought to settle budget issues, including school funding, before tackling tax relief. Skubal raised the same issue but said he might have been able to vote for the bill had its relief gone only to individuals.

GOP leaders contend Kansas is receiving an unanticipated “windfall” from the federal tax overhaul championed by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. The state’s tax laws are tied to the federal tax code.

Federal individual and corporate income taxes were cut but the overhaul included provisions that are expected to raise revenues in some states while lowering it in others.

The federal tax changes limit itemized deductions, and Kansas estimates that 200,000 individual filers will stop itemizing on their federal returns this year. But only 26 percent of Kansas filers itemized on their 2017 federal returns, and a smaller group, 14 percent, itemized on their 2017 state returns.

A Senate committee’s hearings last week on the tax bill were dominated by the concerns of business groups and big corporations with a sizeable Kansas presence, such as aviation’s Spirit AeroSystems and agribusiness’ Seaboard Corp.

A trade association for multistate corporations told lawmakers their state taxes could rise 11 percent.

“We operate in competitive markets with small margins,” David Rankin, a senior Seaboard vice president, told senators in committee testimony. “It seems counter-productive to penalize U.S.-based companies for growing their international operations.”

But Democrats have not been moved by such arguments. Kelly, a former state senator, has said her top tax relief priority would be reducing the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax on groceries — a goal Democrats and many Republicans share.

“If we were to make changes to tax policies, those changes should benefit every Kansan, or at the very least those who need it the most,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. “Giant multi-national corporations with record profits don’t fit in either category.”

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s fellow Democrats are attacking a Republican tax relief plan approved by the state Senate as a give-away to large corporations.

The vote on Thursday in the GOP-dominated Senate was 26-14. GOP leaders have acknowledged that big businesses would benefit but see that as helping the economy.

The bill goes next to the Republican-controlled House. It is designed to prevent Kansas residents and businesses from paying higher state income taxes because of changes in federal tax laws at the end of 2017. Most of the relief would go to businesses in the first year.

Many Republicans expect Kelly to veto it. GOP leaders fell one vote short of a two-thirds majority in the Senate necessary to override a veto when two moderate Republicans voted no.